Displaying items by tag: India

India: The selection for the post of chief executive of the Cement Corporation of India (CCI), which is run by the state of New Dehli, has triggered controversy with regards to the preparation of the list of candidates and the criteria for selection, which was allegedly changed to include some names at the last minute. The CBI has taken note of complaints and is expected to order a probe soon.

The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) issued a list on 11 March 2014 with the names of 15 candidates who has been shortlisted for the interview. After about a week, the PESB released a list of 16 candidates, allegedly flouting its own guidelines on the upper limit on the number of candidates. In the second list an external candidate was added, with no explanation given. The candidate who was seventh on the first list was moved to number one position on the second list. The only internal candidate was allegedly downgraded to the second position on the second list after being put on top of the league on the first list.

India: Dalmia Cement Bharat Ltd's (DCBL) cement production capacity will reach 20Mt/yr following its acquisition of Jaiprakash (JP) Associates' 74% stake in a joint venture with the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) for US$190m.

The board of DCBL has approved the acquisition of a 74% stake in Bokaro Jaypee Cement Ltd (BOJCL), which is a 74:26 joint venture between JP Associates and SAIL.

"With this acquisition, DCBL's current installed capacity (including subsidiaries and associates) will reach 20Mt/yr," said a DCBL spokesperson.

BOJCL has a 2.1Mt/yr cement unit at Bokaro in Jharkhand. The joint venture has a 30 year clinker supply arrangement with JP Associates and a slag supply arrangement for the same period with SAIL.

"The transaction was completed in a record time with excellent chemistry and cooperation between the professional teams of JP Associates and DCBL," said Mahendra Singhi, Group CEO of Cement, DCBL. "The total enterprise value is US$190m. The proposed acquisition would be funded through a mix of debt and internal accruals."

DCBL also holds a 47.3% stake in OCL India and is expanding capacity there. The company is also setting up a 2.5Mt/yt cement plant at Belgaum in Karnataka with an investment of US$222m.

India: Hundreds of farmers who will be affected by a JP Associates cement plant that is under construction in Mangal village, Himachal Pradesh, have staged a protest outside of Arki Sub-Divisional Magistrate (SDM).

The villagers staged their protest over allegations that the cement plant has ruined Mangal village, with JP Associates allegedly having dumped waste in the area. They claim that this has caused massive devastation due to the subsequent run-off from the waste into neighbouring fields.

The Himachal Pradesh high court has passed an order to remove the offending waste and asked the district administration to comply with the order. The villagers have alleged that the district administration failed to force JP Associates to remove the waste that was dumped in the villages. Protesters hold little hope that JP Associates will comply, as successive governments have seldom forced it to in the past.

India: Gebr. Pfeiffer SE and its Indian subsidiary Gebr. Pfeiffer (India) Pvt. Ltd have won a contract with Kolkata-based Emami Cement Ltd, which includes four of the latest design of the MVR mill and an MPS mill for coal grinding.

Emami Cement, an enterprise of the private Emami Group of companies, is a newcomer to the Indian cement industry. It operates in many fields of the consumer goods sector and the decision to set up a greenfield cement works in Chhattisgarh and various grinding plants in east India was preceded by a detailed analysis of the market situation.

The order covers an MVR 6000 R-6 roller mill with an installed drive power of 6700kW for raw material grinding. The mill is designed to yield 610t/hr of raw meal, with the difficult-to-grind material being ground to a fineness of 15% R 90µm.

Three mills of the type MVR 6000 C-6, which is Gebr. Pfeiffer's current top seller, will be used for cement grinding. Each of the mills features an installed drive power of 6700kW and will be capable of producing 335t/hr of ordinary portland cement (OPC). The grinding plants will also be designed to allow fly ash cement and granulated blast-furnace slag to be ground to a fineness of 3800cm²/g according to Blaine and 4000 cm²/g according to Blaine, respectively.

Emami Cement has selected an MPS 3350 BK vertical roller mill for fuel grinding. It will produce 80t/hr of hard coal ground to a fineness of 15% R 90µm.

While Gebr. Pfeiffer SE will supply the core components of the mills and the gear units from Europe, its Indian subsidiary, Gebr. Pfeiffer (India) Pvt. Ltd, will provide components such as housing of the mills and classifiers, the steel foundation parts as well as the interior parts of the classifiers. In addition, the Indian subsidiary will design the plant layout and advise the customer on the equipment.

This order brings the number of MVR mills sold to the Indian market to 10, increasing the number of MVR mills ordered worldwide to 16.

India: Reliance Cement's 2Mt/yr cement plant in Rae Bareli in the state of Utter Pradesh has become operational. The company's aim is to capitalise on the huge demand-supply gap in the state, according to chief executive officer Arvind Pathak.

At present, the cement market in Utter Pradesh is estimated at around 26Mt/yr, while the total cement production in the state stands at about 16Mt/yr, leaving a 10Mt/yr shortfall. Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are among the top cement consuming states in India. Pathak said the cement market was expected to grow by 6%/yr in the near future and that Reliance Cement was well positioned and equipped to fulfil the gap in demand and supply.

The company has invested about US$82.2m in the Rae Bareli plant, which will also consume about 600,000t/yr of fly ash. Reliance Cement's subsidiary, Reliance Power, which runs a 1200MW thermal power plant in Shahjahanpur district, will transport fly ash generated from its unit to the cement plant for consumption. "We aim to become among the top-three cement companies in India with total capacity of 50Mt/yr," Pathak added.

The company is also developing two 5Mt/yr capacity cement plants at Maihar, Madhya Pradesh and Yavatmal, Maharashtra.

India: Chettinad Cement Corporation is set to acquire Anjani Portland Cement. It will give the Chennai-based company a significant presence in the Andhra Pradesh market. No further details have been released. Anjani Cements has over 1.2Mt/yr production capacity from its two plants in Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh. It also has plans for setting up a greenfield unit in Karnataka.

India: Reliance Cement plans to construct a US$555m cement plant in Shimla district, which has now been approved by the Himachal Pradesh government. Reliance Cement proposes manufacturing cement and clinker at the plant, which will provide employment for 350 people and will be commissioned at Chaupal, Himachal Pradesh.

India: Trinetra Cement and Trishul Concrete Products Ltd, both of which are subsidiaries of India Cements Ltd (ICL), will be merged with ICL. The board of ICL met on 26 February 2014 and approved the amalgamation of the two subsidiaries with itself. The amalgamation is subject to regulatory and other approvals.

ICL holds a 61.22% stake in Trinetra, which has a paid-up capital of US$721,000 through its fully-owned subsidiary, ICL Financial Services Ltd. ICL has an 88.4% stake in Trishul Concrete, which has a paid-up capital of US$352,000 through its wholly-owned subsidiaries.

Under the scheme of amalgamation, the appointed date for the merger is 1 January 2014.

India: UltraTech Cement Ltd is in talks to buy Jaypee's cement assets in Solan, Himachal Pradesh, for US$644m, according to anonymous sources. This comes shortly after UltraTech's purchase of Jaypee's Gujarat cement plant.

For Jaypee, subsidiary of Jaiprakash Associates Ltd, the deal will be another effort towards trimming its US$8.54bn debt (as of 31 March 2013). The company sold 1.21km2 of land in Greater Noida to realty firm Gaursons India Ltd for US$241m in May 2013. Jaypee is also close to finalising the sale of two of its three operating hydroelectric projects to a consortium led by Abu Dhabi National Energy Co PJSC for at least US$1.5bn.

UltraTech's cement manufacturing capacity increased to 59Mt/yr from 54Mt/yr after it bought Jaypee's Gujarat plant. The company aims to increase its capacity to 70Mt/yr by 2015, according to Kailash Birla, senior executive president and chief financial officer of UltraTech. The Solan assets, if acquired, will add another 4Mt/yr of capacity. The grinding and blending unit and the cement plant in consideration have capacities of 2Mt/yr each.

India: The Himachal Pradesh cabinet has cancelled the allotment of a cement plant to Jaypee in Chamba district as the company failed to meet the extended deadline to start production.

Official sources said that the government was not satisfied with Jaypee's reply to a show cause notice. The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the cancelled project was signed in February 2007.

The US$128m project with a proposed production capacity of 2Mt/yr was due to begin operations within five years after receiving clearance from the Environment Ministry. The plant was expected to provide direct employment to over 1000 people.